L’amatriciana (and some pizza for good measure)

Some friends called this evening to ask if I wanted to go to dinner and I realized that I have very little of an important aspect of my Italian life here on the blog…food! They humored me while I explained the blog and snapped photos at the dinner table. I ordered the Roman classic amatriciana. It’s a classic on every Roman menu that originates in the northern Lazio town of Amatrice. Every summer they have a sagra celebrating amatriciana, which I attended two summers ago with this same group of friends. It’s serious business up there, with hundreds of kilos of pasta prepared for the event. For the tried and true recipe, the city of Amatrice has a website in English and Italian. The restaurant served it to me with normal spaghetti, but it really should be eaten with bucatini (a thicker spaghetti with a hole in the center, buco means hole in Italian and it’s great for collecting sauce). The pizza I threw in because it looks delicious and I like the photo. The topping in chicory (cicoria) and sausage.

7 Comments

nobu
November 12, 2008

I think that pasta has rich taste,looks delicious.I like pasta,I think many of Japanese too. ( Japanese like noodles )

Chicory and sausege are nice combination. I’d like to have that piza too. I suppose it is crispy and nice texture.

Nobu – It was quite delicious! Japanese noodles are fantastic, I love soba especially. The pizza crusts here are always crispy in Rome and even slightly burnt sometimes, they make a nice little plate for the toppings.

Petu – Good, maybe he will be inspired and we can do an amatriciana night! We can pair it with gricia as well and do a combo (with gluten free noodles for you, of course).

Jessica, your photos are so beautiful! I am moving to Rome in February (from Toronto) and your photos make me even more excited about my upcoming move. I found your site from nyc/caribbean ragazza, who i read regularly – i’ll be a regular reader of this blog too. Thank you for sharing your beautiful pix!

Hi Toni, thanks so much for your comment, it’s nice to know people are liking the photos. Good luck with the upcoming move and, who knows, maybe we’ll bump into each other in Rome. If you have any questions about things, feel free to ask.